There is a major shortage of nurses in Stockholm County, shows a survey made by the National Board of Health and Welfare.
Södermanland and Halland come in second and third place.
According to Mira Nyberg, chief safety officer at Karolinska University Hospital, the workload for nurses has worsened over the years.
- I have worked as a nurse since the mid-90s and the development has only gone from bad to worse.
What we have seen after the pandemic is something completely new.
One of the nurses worked more than 580 hours of overtime last year
According to the Working Hours Act, the limit for nurses' overtime is a maximum of 200 hours per calendar year and employee.
Due to staff shortages, nearly 250 nurses at Karolinska Hospital have worked much more than the law allows.
- It shows that the employer does not have an attractive employer and that we cannot recruit enough staff, says Nyberg and adds:
- This is not only a problem at Karolinska or in Stockholm, but in all of Sweden.
The hospital must review the routines
According to Karolinska University Hospital, initiatives are currently being implemented for work environment, recruitment and benefits with the goal of improving the staffing of nurses.
The hospital believes that they have a great responsibility to comply with laws, agreements and regulations.
- We are currently reviewing the routines around overtime.
Our ambition is for overtime to be reduced and distributed evenly across the groups, says Catarina Thepper, press secretary at Karolinska University Hospital.